As is generally well known, the performance of materials employed in military and civilian application relies upon their structural integrity and a range of mechanical, thermal, and electrical material properties. Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) is critical to the success of systems or applications which these materials are integrated in as it allows them to be tested after deployment, storage, repairs, manufacturing, and prior to, during, and after their use in application. As such, there is a clear need for an NDE characterization system capable of determining material properties while simultaneously locating and identifying defects which limit material performance. However, to the best knowledge of the Applicant, individual established NDE techniques are incapable of providing both defect detection while simultaneously delivering mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, as many are specialized towards a particular end or property subset. Technologies used to assess critical material properties often cannot locate and identify structural flaws while methods used to locate flaws cannot measure material properties needed to determine performance and expected lifetime. Therefore, there is a need for a multi-sensor approach combining acoustic and radio frequency (RF) NDE techniques to directly address this problem and provide a complete assessment of the material, including all properties relevant to performance prediction, while attaining superior sensitivity to minute material defects.
Ultra-sensitive sensor systems and their supporting algorithms are currently used in a range of nondestructive characterization settings where acoustic and/or electromagnetic emissions are detected and analyzed to perform material or system assessments. State-of-the-art systems can employ embedded FPGA-based signal assessment algorithms for real-time analysis of RF or acoustic data streams. Results from existing systems have demonstrated extremely high correlation of detection outputs with reality in controlled studies, with false alarm rates consistently near 0% and probability of detection close to 100% for well characterized subjects. Mature algorithmic processes have demonstrated a readily adaptable capability for advanced analysis of received signal data in real time. Ultra-sensitive sensor technology has achieved success both in field applications and the manufacturing environment. Existing sensor systems have been ruggedized to maintain accuracy and integrity of system components in the field.
Advanced materials used in critical commercial and military technologies require structural integrity to provide exceptional performance in a demanding environment. Determination of material properties must be conducted using NDE techniques to enable tested materials to be directly implemented into their intended systems. Currently available systems fall short of the needs of modern materials as they cannot simultaneously measure the entire range of relevant material properties while locating and identifying structural defects that degrade performance. Therefore, an acquisition of this information is needed to meet the growing needs of quality control standards and ensure that systems will achieve mission goals and/or product requirements.